News

Dr. Kelly Gonzales presents on Cully Neighborhood Youth Project

Author: Shaun McGillis, Research & Strategic Partnerships

Posted: July 1, 2014

Presenting at the university-wide student research symposium were undergraduate students from the School of Community Health, Dechen Dolkar and Kasey Zamago. Under the direction of Dr. Kelly Gonzales, Assistant Professor of Community Health, Zamago, Dolkar, and a team of 16 other PSU students, graduates and undergraduates alike, in collaboration with Hacienda CDC and the youth of the Cully Neighborhood, developed and implemented the “Cully Neighborhood Youth Project: Perceptions of Cully Park, Safety and Health.”

The project involved gathering, analyzing, and disseminating visual and spatial data on the perspectives of youth in Portland’s Cully Neighborhood in order to provide community members and their neighborhood development partners a snapshot of how youth conceive of the park under development in the area of NE 75th and NE Killingsworth streets, its potential health benefits, and the hurdles children in the neighborhood might encounter when they try to access and use the park. In doing so, the research team assured the concerns of children in the neighborhood were heard by the community leaders shaping the future social, environmental, and economic landscape of this Portland neighborhood. Zamago was involved in the logistics and planning of events related to the study; she also assisted with data collection, analysis, and dissemination. Dolkar helped with data analysis and the dissemination of the study’s findings.